Transparency demands rigorous control of the “reference primes” (Fangprämien)
Berlin, 08 June 2010 - The German chapter of the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International calls for a consistent approach to reference primes (Fangprämien) in healthcare. The current healthcare system in Germany allows doctors to receive a monetary incentive if they transfer a patient to a hospital which may not be so good for the patient's welfare, but is in the financial interest of the medical contractors.
Transparency has always sharply criticised these payments and calls for the consistent fight against them. This should include an empirical study on the extent of references against incentives. Hospitals are not the only ones to pay doctors for the reference of patients. There are also questionable agreements between different specialist groups or specialist doctors and medical healthcare professionals, for example between internists and radiologists, dentists and dental technicians or orthopedic surgeons and physiotherapists.
Anke Martiny, board member of Transparency Germany: "In some countries, patients have to bribe doctors in order to receive medical care. In Germany, patients have to fear that they do not get the best possible medical care but indeed some care that will benefit their doctor due to treatment or reference.”
Also, the Federal Medical Professional Code prohibits the allocation to be paid, primarily for ethical reasons, but currently, it cannot be criminally prosecuted. Transparency therefore calls that independent doctors are employed as their clinical pears as civil servants. The acceptance of financial or material benefits in the event of allocations then would be punishable, and the threshold for the acceptance of Fangprämien would be greater.
In the fall, the next government' report on the work on “the provision for combating misconduct in the health sector for the years 2008 / 2009” is expected, Transparency demands that in that context it should be verified whether there are still loopholes in the rules, and it should be examined whether the medical / dental associations funds could stop (erfassen) the references against incentive and whether these were prosecuted. Transparency also demands that the report be published in the autumn and made available to all and not only the members of the Health Committee of the German Bundestag.
The Health Committee of the Bundestag had asked the Federal Ministry of Health at the Committee meeting on 9th June 2010 for a report on the status of the explanations of Fangprämien. Last summer it was revealed that hospitals had paid doctors for the reference of additional patients. Federal Medical Associations, the confederation of medical funds and the German Hospital Association reacted with a commitment to implement clearing houses for the fight against reference primes, which however has not been held until today.